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North Carolina mayor, wife found dead in home; suspect held

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Sheriff's deputies said they arrested a man Friday who they believe killed the mayor of a small eastern North Carolina town and his wife.

A Leggett, N.C., town commissioner told WRAL-TV in Raleigh, N.C., that authorities found Mayor Gary Skelton and his wife, Jackie Dawn Skelton, dead in their home Thursday night during a welfare check.

Colleagues of Jackie Skelton asked officials to check on the family after she failed to show up at work.

Authorities arrested Keith Earl Williams, 25, and charged him with first-degree murder. He was being held without bond in Edgecombe County Jail.

Sheriff Clee Atkinson said another person of interest is also being held.

WRAL-TV reported the Skeltons were attacked in their home Wednesday night.

"The terror that they had to have felt, going through what they were going through, it's unimaginable," Town Commissioner Teresa Summerlin said. "It is unimaginable what they came home to last night, that's what sickens me to my core, how they must have felt. It sickens me and they were the epitome of good people, they were awesomely good people."

Leggett, which has a population of 55 people, is located about 70 miles northeast of Raleigh.